What is needed is a Dremel or similar precision skill tool. Small cut off wheels, can be found in the 150pc kit from Dremel. Various sockets. Utility razor knife. Sharpie or perminant marker. Safety glasses, cut off wheels can and will shatter at unexpected times.

This was done on a 1992 5.0 F-150 and is merely my experience. You may have different results, depending, should you try and attempt to do this. Do not tear up your truck and blame me.

Get rid of the section of air tubing going from the radiator support to the lower air box.
Un-screw the upper lid of the air box, set the upper lid out of the way, remove air filter.
Disconect the breather tubing and remove the filter.
Un-screw the two lower air box screws holding the lower part down.
Un-bolt the air box bracket. There should be 3 bolts on the fender and 2 nuts also holding the window washer/ coolant jug in place.
Cut the foam on the bottom of the air box bracket about half way away from the fender. (the reason for this is because the bottom of the air box is angled. Cutting the foam that is near the fender allows more room)
*This next step is very trial and error.*
Place the lower air box ito the air box bracket backwards and line up the two small bolts as if to remount it. Notice that the bottom hits the bracket. Make necessary cuts with the Dremel and cut off wheel to make the bottom portion of the box sit in the bracket. DO NOT GO OVERBOARD HERE. Espesially if you intend to re-use the stock oil breather.
It is now up to the individual to use an aftermarket oil breather or modify the lower box to accept the factory oil breater. To use the stock breather simply gauge where the oil breather tube will meet with the lower box and mark this spot with the sharpie.
One of the smaller cut off wheels in the 150pc Dremel set is ideal for this, as it is the exact size needed.
Place the air box bracket back in its origional spot without puting the harware back in to secure it. Turn the bottom of the air box around so that the air will be extracted from the fender. Now with the sharpie marker out line the optimal rectangle to cut out so that the air can be drawn from the fender.
With the outline drawn, cut the fender. This does not need to be a massive hole. A 2x5" hole is about the size needed. And it does not need to be pretty as the box will later cover this up.
Re-assemble with the lower air box now pulling air from the fender.
Now test fit to make sure everything is snug and secure.

Notice that this now eliminates the tube that previously went to the radiator support and frees up space. And by using nothing aftermarket the modification looks completely stock. The inner fender above the driver tire will keep debris from entering the box. Also to be noted, look at the air tubing that previously fed the lower air box. More to the point, look at the part that inserts into the air box, the part with the holes. Very small and insufficient for any performance.

This modification got rid of a pesky, off the petal, low end hesitation and now makes a very aggressive growl when ever more power is needed. And the best part is that it was relatively free. Im not really counting the cost of the marker or the Dremel and accesories i already owned.

Sorry about no pics. I didnt have my camera with me when i did this. Its relitively straight foreward though and will end up looking clean and stock.

 

I like your thinking, this produces something that is similar to the way the Stangs are setup. The V8 F150's have a rather restrictive looking intake snorkle that goes over the top of the rad and obviously you goal was to eliminate this. What you may not be aware of is that the I6 and BB trucks got a different snorkle that goes to the large hole beside the rad, this is a popular mod and does improve breathing ability as well.

 

Are you saying cut a hole so you can basically see the tire looking down with the hood open?

Any pictures now?

 

No, there is an inner fender plastic piece that will gaurd this hole. If you look at how the air box is set up in stock form the lower air box has a rectangle so that air can come in. This hole faces the engine. Im suggesting turning it around to face the fender, but a 2"x5" hole will need to be cut in the inner fender. The outer fender is often called the quarter pannel and is the painted pannel above the front tire.

Does that help?

And i havent been over to my buddies house to be able to take any pics. I will post them as soon as possible. Maybe Saturday night. hopefully.

 

I would have posted these in the first post but i cant edit like other sites. But there they are.

Front shots:



Under shot where the snorkel once was:


Part of the bottom cut out:


Section cut, reinstalled breather, cut inner fender:


Old oil breather hole does not need to be patched up because it is under the filter, so no vacuum leak:


Awkward top looking down shot of the new inner fender hole:


Camera in the lower box looking at the hole:

 

Sounds good. I was going to go with the intake tube from i6 or 460 but I might look into this since it is free. Did you happen to notice any difference in power over the stock air tube especially upper end power like around 3000 to 3500 rpms? You did mention about low end hesitation but other than that notice anything else?

 

Well its really hard to say. This truck is my buddies and i dont drive it much. I drove it around a bit after i was done and it was more responsive to throttle and i didnt need as much gas petal. And man, that intake growl is hard to miss when you punch it. Its like it wants to suck in the driver side tire. I was all grins. Im eager to see what this truck sounds like with a K&N.

Also, this truck used to stall out when put in gear sometimes. That went away.

 

In the first two pics in post 5 you can see where i tried to modify the plastic and weather strip to let in better air. But when i closed the hood i realised that the hood actually shrouds the snorkel inlet with a bulge that hangs down so the hood can latch. This, plus a really restrictive opening in the actual snorkel where it enters the box, made this a very worth while modification. Id almost be willing to say it might pick up a mile or two per gallon because the engine isnt starving for air. Especially in mid and top end where air flow is crucial.

 

Well thats good to hear. I like the sound of my engine sounding a little more aggressive so I think that I will give this a try sometime when I have time.

Thanks.

 

I too have been thinking about doing this mod since it is basically free.... and anything free to improve air flow sounds like a good idea. Does much fresh cold air get swept up into that fender well?

 

ended up doing this and dropped a K&n panel in and i gotta say wow this was a great improvement over stock. Much faster accel. and less lag while starting in gear from a stopped position.